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The rainbow leaves hanging overhead cast a beautiful array of colors on the ground as Elyria pawed at the dirt with her boot.

“Hey,” she said softly when Cedric finally caught up.

“Hey,” he replied breathlessly. Quarter-fae or not, she was still much, much faster than him, and that brought the tiniest modicum of joy to the forefront of her restless, racing thoughts.

“Do you feel like telling me what that was about?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same thing,” she shot back.

“Elle.” And this time, the word wasn’t laced with pity or sympathy. He just sounded tired.

Elyria was tired too. “I just think you’re all being nonsensical. We should be merging our magic right this instant”—she pointed to the locket hanging over Cedric’s tunic—“and taking our measly crown half to Nox in whatever quarter of hell they currently are in to unite it with the other. We are wasting time.”

“I can understand why it feels like that, but⁠—”

“Four days, Cedric. Four fucking days, I was out of it. And today makes it five—or is it six? Either way, they’re days that Malakar has had to regroup, to plan. To figure out his next move, to activate his followers, to figure out where I am and—” The words were coming too fast, each one accompanied with horrifying vision after horrifying vision. Her breaths were too shallow. She couldn’t get enough air.

“Easy there, Trouble,” Cedric said, finally close enough to wrap his arms around her, to pull her against him. The contact helped, feeling his warmth against her body, the ghost of his breath against her skin.

But not enough.

“We can’t sit around, Cedric. You don’t—you don’t know what he is capable of. How far he is willing to go. All he’s done, all he’s tried to do—” She swallowed hard, and though she could feel Cedric’s building rage pulsing down the bond, it was still nothing compared to her own panic.

She was unmoored, flailing. Even in her solimaeus’s arms, even with Kit here in Elderglade, even knowing so many of her friends were safe . . . Those little pieces of herself were slowly being anchored back in place inside . . . but it wasn’t all of them.

There was still something missing.

“I do want them back,” she said, her voice low, her pulse pounding in her ears. It felt like her most selfish confession yet.

“Of course you do, my love. And we all want you to have them back, too. Don’t you see?”

“Don’t you? I want them back, and I am willing to push off uniting the crown and sealing the Chasms and foiling Malakar’s plans because of it. But if⁠—”

She choked on the words.

He waited.

“If it doesn’t work, if it ends up all being for nothing, if whatever time we lose to my recovery ends up being time he uses to get another step ahead . . . I’ll never forgive myself.”

“Elle . . .”

“Hells, even if it does work but the rest remains the same, it’s simply not a trade worth making. Our priority should be stopping him. Saving Arcanis from the dark future he wants to rewrite for us. Everything else is inconsequential.”

Cedric shook his head. “How many people have you already saved? How many lives have you already changed for the better? You discount your worth so easily. And I thought we had already been through this. You are worth more. You are worth everything. And I will always choose to do all that is in my power to give you what you want, what you need, and most importantly, what you deserve.”

Elyria blinked at him, and it was only when she felt the first tear trail down her cheek that she realized she was crying.

“We aren’t talking about waiting forever,” he continued. “I’m sure that Nox will be here soon and⁠—”

A yell pierced the tree line, and Elyria immediately whirled toward the source of the noise. That’s when she noticed the sound of rushing bootsteps, soft against the forest floor.

Too soft.

Not bootsteps. The cadence was off. It was something more like a gallop, a canter . . . but also too soft for that. Someone was still yelling, but it took another moment for the sound to solidify into discernible words and for Elyria to realize what was happening all at once.

“Stop it!” shouted one voice.

“It’s too fast!” yelled another.